Jeep Page 2

Jeeps

Page 2

An Odyssey With Jeeps

1965 to Current.........

America Is Within Jeepin' Distance......

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It began when I was about 7 years old, long about 1959 or so. I had been exposed to the wondrous pictures of my Dad when he was overseas in WW2 on the island of Saipan in the Western Pacific. In this huge twin matching dark brown volumes with those sepia tone and B & W photos of dead Japs, B-29 long range bombers, friends and tent mates, was many pictures of this super tanned, slim, in shape guy in his very early 20s, standing near or leaning on or sitting in, several 1943 Military Jeep MBs, with the top off, windshield folded down on the hood, him and the Jeeps looking absolutely super cool.

One day about three weeks later, my dad came home from work with one of those Revel, 1:32 scale models of a Military Jeep MB. I was totally taken aback. I wasn't that skilled in modeling as I am today so he helped me with it. When done or nearabouts, I wanted Dad to help me make it in the way I would want my eventual Jeep, olive drab paint job and all. We did just that and I had that model for years, staring at it, playing with it, regluing the wheels back on after I broke them off numerous times, and having dreams about it when one day I would have my own real Jeep.

A few years later I was about 10 and working the fields of California helping move irrigation pipe for $0.40 cents an hour for these chinese brothers who were tomato farmers in our home town. An older guy named 'Jim' was the foreman for them and he drove around to all the fields in a 1944 Military Jeep MB that had been tastefully painted a dark forest green, covered in the requisite amounts of dust and dried mud on the wheel rims, making it look really sharp. I drooled over that Jeep since by then I had decided I would have a Jeep one day and forever more drive one and have fun with one and be very cool like my Dad was in those super cool white sand beach photos in his military scrapbooks.

Jim was a really nice fella, with a large beer gut, work shirt, denim jeans, and a dark tan from being in the central valley sun all his life. He was about 60 then and it was the summer of 1962. He had a good demeanor and he had fun with me laughing how I could eat all those hot peppers with the braceros' who I worked with in the tomato fields. And they being kind enough to bring extra food for me since I had quickly learned to love Mexican food with a passion, still do to this day, all these years later. Jim also notice me always hanging around, sitting in, and messing with the Jeep. He broached the subject one day and told me all about his own Jeep experiences in WW 2 also.

About two years later I was promoted up to run heavy D-7 ad D-8 farm CATS in the fields and so was making alot more money before and after school. I had enough saved to either buy a Jeep outright or enough down to finance one. Jim was still around and one day he came to the field where I was discing and signaled me over. I idled the CAT and jumped down and went over to him and his Jeep. He said hop in and we sped off. Soon, we were at the big shops the Chew brothers had for their farming operation. In back was another huge shop where they held and serviced their machinery. Off to the side in these series of bays was about 4 Jeep Military models MB. He said they were for sale. I was in tenth heaven. I checked them all out and then called my Dad at work to see if on the weekend we could come out there with Jim and look at them up close and carefully. He said sure.

The weekend came and lo, I bought one of them. It was $500. I put $300 down at the local Wells Fargo Bank with my Dad and Mom cosigning for me and thus had Jeep payments of $11.56 per month for 2 years. I had $473.00 left over and this I budgeted for modifications and some slight fixes on my new joy. On Monday my Dad and Jim and the Chew brothers got me an Agricultural license allowing me to drive industrial equipment on pavement. My Dad checked and back then Jeeps were listed as industrial vehicles so, at age 12, I was driving. But then that was fairly common then in rural towns where farming kids would be driving at an early age. I was still pretty cool in my mind, however. My first Jeep is #1, just below.

Let the Odyssey, then, begin...........39 years and counting.

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Jeep 1)

MM

This is the winter of 1965 in Quincy, California, where my Mom and Dad moved after a transfer from his work in the Central Valley. This is up in the Sierra Nevadas, where I spent the rest of my youth until we moved back to Montana. In this scene my Dad had towed the Jeep behind their car since I still didn't have a top yet for it and a trip up to the Sierras in winter in an open Jeep would have been fool hearty and downright unbearable. I got it painted though, from the Chew brothers forest green they had as its former livery to the Olive Drab Army livery I loved so much. Note the new 600x16 Army Lug Tires I found for it. It is military stock here and I even carried my new 3030 lever action Winchester deer rifle in the Military scabbord on the dash. I froze the three weeks we were up there in Quincy driving around in the Jeep, but I had fun too. I couldn't do much off roading since snow that year was extreme. This Jeep is a 1944 Willys MB.

Note, too, I had added a roll bar, this I had built in metal shop class at high school, which started me down a path of a life long love of working with metal. Sadly, I do not have many pictures of this first Jeep. I wish I had more. The next summer my Dad and I built a plywood cab with an angle iron frame work that my Mom insulated and we put a spare heater in it from a school bus. The next winter I was very very warm in this Jeep. I also added the early generation Selectro Hubs to the front since the Chew brothers still ran the Jeeps with the Military OEM locked hub and grease cap affair. I had to replace the oak wood blocks for the windshield perch on the forward part of the hood too. I loved that Jeep so much and have fond memories of the joys it provided as my very first Jeep.

Like a maiden, you never really love again like the first time. I think it might be true with Jeeps too, maybe.

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Jeep 2

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This is Jeep #2 that I bought in early 1967. It is an odd one in that the military in California, the National Guard, had bought several hundred of these 'F' -Head 'high hood' Jeep CJ-3Bs models (MJ-3BF) to take advantage of the stronger 4 cyl. engine. The F-Head design provided more HP and torque compared to the first generation flathead design that was OEM in the MB version. They put the mods on them for Military specs, and used them for some years until the M-38 and finally, the M38A1 was out and online (the latter being the Military version of the eventual CJ-5). This was a 1953 and I got it and kept it in its military livery. Good Jeep. I liked the CJ-3B but to this day the high hood design never caught on with me and likewise for many others in the Jeep driving world. I owned two of these. This one and the one below. From then on, I went with the CJ-5 for the next 11 years.

Had I known then the rarity of this Jeep I would have tried to keep it since today it would worth a fortune. Oh well. That other fella was my high school chum, Dale Walker, and he loved to go Jeepin' with me. It's about sunset in the Sierras, on a warm summer evening and we had been fishing and doing some rough jeepin' that day.

M

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Jeep 3

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This is Jeep #3. It is now 1968. This is the true civilian version of the CJ-3B which was around 2nd longest of any Jeep type other than the basic CJ-5 design. This model was fairly new by Jeep standards in that it is a 1957. They were about to wind down on this but kept this model in the sales line until 1964, its last year, when Kaiser was up and running as owner of the Jeep Corporation, and concentrating all efforts by then on the CJ-5, CJ-6 and the upcoming V-6 engine and other mods that changed the Jeep entirely for the better.

That hand winch on the front was my first 'winch', if it could be called such. What a nightmare. You really busted a nut trying to crank that thing to extract the Jeep when I got stuck. (I was always stuck in the beginning years as I was learning how to drive these things off road). I loved this Jeep though. It was a good rig for me at the time. I named this Jeep, 'Jan', for my current girlfriend at the time. It was my last flat fender Jeep I ever owned.

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Jeep 4

This is Jeep #4, a 1961 CJ-5, my first CJ-5 and the first one I had with the 'modern' accruements Jeep

was putting in these outfits at the time. It is now the year 1969. America was asunder, Vietnam was

raging and tearing the country apart. But up in the Sierras Nevadas of California, all was quiet and

life was as it always was:

Peaceful. I had built up the can rack, the tow bar on the front, a roll bar and removable roll cage, rock

guards on the lower body sides, an extra battery tray that worked out really well for having two batteries

for the first time. The yellow color was not OEM, but because this Jeep was surplus from the California

Mosquito Abatement program and all their Jeeps were this Caterpillar Yellow color, it came in this livery.

I never liked the color but it was a great Jeep. I courted my first true love in this Jeep and we had a blast in

this rig. I'm laying next to a big Douglas Fir, up in the mountains outside of Quincy about 25 miles, and

my Dad and I had gone camping and this was just after lunch. Our base camp was just off to the right.

We jeeped right from the camp, off road, through the glen just behind the Jeep to get up to an upper pond

where we were fishing. The emblem on the side stood for 'Boonedocks', a place and logging company

just north of Quincy where I worked at the time.

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Jeep 5

This is Jeep #5, a 1970 CJ-5, my first 'Brand New' Jeep. This was up town city for me. This Jeep when

this picture was taken had 78 miles on it. This was my only red Jeep I ever owned but it was all they

had at the time for models, since it was the end of the model year and their stock was quite low. It had

the V-6, which finally allowed me to drive at highway speeds for the first time. In the older flat fenders,

with their normal 5.38 gearing, about 50 MPH was all they would do. The 4 cylinder was grossly under

powered on the highway but as more than adequate off road. The problem with the early Jeeps and the

early CJ-5s I noticed was that the 3 speed transmission and the rear end gearing set up a combination

that in essence was too low geared for highway usage and too high geared for serious off roading. They

would do both, but it was a labor in driving, clutching, and matching the two, and on the highway those

early Jeeps would beat the sh*t out of you on long trips.

In the CJ-5-V6 era and under Kaiser's ownership and management everything changed. The Jeep above

had 4.10 gears in the rear end and a 2.00:1 Dana 18 Transfer case, so low range 4WD off road was excellent,

while the 2WD mode and the 4.10:1 gears in the axles made for the best combination on the highway. This

Jeep would really scoot on the pavement. It was my first Jeep I could conformatbly run as a car, so to speak,

and yet, do some of my most extreme Jeeping to date. This was one of my most favorite Jeeps up to that time.

New, this Jeep ran $3125.00, with soft top, heater, with optional passenger seat, spare tire, HD ignition, Warn

Hubs, Interior accent group, and HD Goodyear traction Mud and Snow tires which were 7.50x15. Factory tow

bar completed the stock items on this rig. The roll bar I made in a shop where I worked logging.

I didn't get to enjoy this Jeep much since I went overseas, but upon my return I picked up where I left and

kept on Jeepin'--and this Jeep was a real pleasure, even though I never really cared for that bright red. We'll

end this part in the early years with Jeeps here and go on to page 3.

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